DISA to boost video and data content delivery to troops

The Defense Information Systems agency is launching two new efforts to support its military customers. The programs will provide video and data to soldiers in forward operating bases and offer a flexible storage capability for organizations, Alfred Rivera, director of DISA’s Computing Services Directorate said Aug. 17 at the DISA Customer and Industry Forum in Baltimore.

The first effort is an enhancement to Global Information Grid (GIG) Content Delivery System services. The GCDS system delivers secure and nonsecure content such as streaming video to troops on the edge of battlefield networks. It can also be used to augment more applications onto the GIG. “We’re going to buy this as a utility,” he said.

To support this, Rivera said that DISA is launching a separate open competition in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012.

The other program is the Enterprise Storage Solution Capacity Services (ESS) II. This effort is also using a utility-based approach and will be available across the continental United States. DISA will maintain operational control of ESS, but the customers will provide services as needed, he said. DISA will use an on-demand service approach for data storage solutions. This effort, which will feature a full and open competition, is scheduled to being in the third quarter of fiscal 2012.